Word Live: Culture Shock
Bring your day before God, especially the contexts in which you find it most difficult to live distinctively as a Christian.
Bible passage
Genesis 46:1–7, 28–34
Jacob goes to Egypt
46 So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
2 And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, ‘Jacob! Jacob!’
‘Here I am,’ he replied.
3 ‘I am God, the God of your father,’ he said. ‘Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. 4 I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.’
5 Then Jacob left Beersheba, and Israel’s sons took their father Jacob and their children and their wives in the carts that Pharaoh had sent to transport him. 6 So Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt, taking with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in Canaan. 7 Jacob brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters – all his offspring.
Genesis 46:28-34
28 Now Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to get directions to Goshen. When they arrived in the region of Goshen, 29 Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time.
30 Israel said to Joseph, ‘Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive.’
31 Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, ‘I will go up and speak to Pharaoh and will say to him, “My brothers and my father’s household, who were living in the land of Canaan, have come to me. 32 The men are shepherds; they tend livestock, and they have brought along their flocks and herds and everything they own.” 33 When Pharaoh calls you in and asks, “What is your occupation?” 34 you should answer, “Your servants have tended livestock from our boyhood on, just as our fathers did.” Then you will be allowed to settle in the region of Goshen, for all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians.’
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Explore
Egyptian carts arriving at Jacob’s tent must have seemed like a fleet of chauffeured limousines (v 5)! Into these exotic vehicles Jacob crammed his family and possessions, with livestock alongside. For him, livestock was a measure of wealth – Jacob’s whole life had been spent in accumulating as many sheep and goats as possible (v 6).
Once in Egypt, he is greeted by Joseph, riding a chariot (v 29), equivalent to a state-of-the-art sports car. There is joy in the reunion and Jacob is finally at
peace (v 30). But Joseph brings bad news: shepherds are abhorrent to the Egyptians (v 34) – Jacob’s livestock simply serves to prove his social inferiority. Like a country yokel arriving in the big city, Jacob must have felt out of place. Culturally, Joseph had been no different from his father when he first arrived in Egypt, but he had managed to navigate through an alien society and still hold on to God’s unique promise to his nation (see verse 3).
It is significant that in this passage the name Israel is again used for Jacob. This is the story of two nations and the distinctiveness of Israel as God’s flock (Psalm 95:7). In every age the people of God must learn how to live in the world while looking for their true home (Hebrews 11:10).
Author
Steve Silvester
Respond
Reflect on Jesus’ prayer in John 17:14–18. How might he be interceding for you right now?
Deeper Bible study
‘Even to your old age and grey hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you’.1
Elderly Jacob is persuaded to set out for Egypt and start a new life there at the age of 130. In the reporting of this, two locations become significant.
First, Beersheba becomes the place of revelation (vs 1–7). The relationship between Egypt and Jacob’s family had been problematic. During a previous famine, Abraham had run into trouble there2 and God had forbidden Isaac to go there.3 Canaan was the land of promise, so was it right to relocate to Egypt? God reassures Jacob that it is, through a vision (a dream by another name), just as he’d appeared to him earlier at Bethel.4 This new vision repeats the promise of Bethel, that his family would become a great nation, eventually settling in Canaan, but it now adds that this would happen via a detour in Egypt. Jacob may be old, weak and uncertain, but God remained the same active sovereign. His power was not limited to Canaan and, 400 years later, would be demonstrated magnificently as he led Jacob’s descendants out of slavery in Egypt.
Second, Goshen becomes the place of reunion (vs 28–34). Joseph and his father are reunited there, in the territory allocated to them because of its suitability for sheep farmers. It was of little interest to the Egyptians, with their antipathy to shepherds, but it becomes a special place because the son, whom Jacob had long assumed to be dead but who was now the most powerful man in Egypt, except for Pharaoh, presented himself to his father. Jacob was now ready to end his life content – though he lived for a further 17 years.5
God indeed keeps his promises, even in Egypt and even when families are broken. His word, not ours, has the final say.
Today’s reading may well prompt us to pray for the healing of the many fractured families in our communities – and even our churches.
1Isa 46:4 2Gen 12:10–20 3Gen 26:2 4Gen 28:10–22 5Gen 47:28
Author
Derek Tidball
